This week in Dispatches we take a look at small arms in videogames. The game industry has become linked with real world manufacturers, but sometimes those manufacturers have problems. The XM-8 is still showing up in games all over the place even after is discontinuation. Some games have guns we might recognize, while others label and model with military precision. But a game with imagined weapons just doesn't have the same edge that an M4A1 or SVD does. I've always felt that different guns bring a different feel to a game.

What do you think? How important are the guns to a military simulator? Do you find that some games portray different weapons in different ways? What about guns that are not necessarily associated with a national military, like the MP5? These tools of the trade are an important part of the games we play, and I'm curious to hear what you think.

Interesting topic! I prefer having realistic guns (Not a fan of BFGS/Lazer can0nz0rs! xD)
Wondering what the copyright stuff had an impact on this, i know in airsoft, some airsoft brands use different names e.g RK01 for the AK101 or whatever.

Its interesting that you mention the weapon names in STALKER, because they are almost all mirrored.
This is done intentionally to make shooting in the game more exciting, with moving parts and empty cartridges flying across the screen.

As a right hander, I would not want to fire the STALKER SA 80 in real life :)

People geting killed all the time... Its normal fenomen. And that we have fun with a game wheare you shoot people is also sayng something about human nature... Right?
And yes i have brother that fought in chechnya in 1996

I must admit in Ghost Recon i only played with the Sa80 cause it looked great to me in that small 2D picture (dark/light image) when picking weapons :D

Then when AS mod came out i used the diemaco cause the sound :D and when playing "official" coop tourneys i asked to use the sound of diemaco with Sa80 and there was no problem.

In arma series, just everything but the AK :D

What i try to say it's that id didn't care so much about realism, probably i never was too much into military stuff, nor the culture here in Spain is the same as in other places, when we talk about this things.

If the title is billed to be a simulator then it should be just that, and accurately reflect, with as much attention to detail as possible, the weapons/equipment included, as well as their use/employment.
Fairly simple concept to grasp, but apparently -and obviously- difficult for the devs to wrap their heads around and to package it up for distribution.
If its function cannot be modeled correctly, due to engine limitations, time constraints, etc., don't include it. Easy.
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No offense to any Zoomies around here but I would much rather see a properly modeled Charging Handle animation for an M4 than any of the fixed wing aircraft BIS likes to saddle this thing with.

Now whenever I play Stalker all I can see are backwards guns and hot casings in my characters face! Its interesting, because from a gamers perspective it makes perfect sense: the guns look cooler with the ejection ports emptying across the screen. But realism calls for something much less "cool."

And I am all in support for a charging handle animation. The mag release and replacement just isn't enough sometimes. No satisfying *chik-Chack* sound.